A western Newfoundland man who sexually abused his former partner’s 10-year-old daughter has been found guilty.

The man, who cannot be named because of a court-ordered publication ban to protect the victim’s identity, was found guilty late last week by Judge Wayne Gorman after a recent trial in provincial court in Corner Brook.

During the trial, Gorman heard evidence that, while the family had all lived together at one point, the man later moved in with his mother next door. The two adults, who did have a child together, maintained a relationship during this living arrangement.

The court was told the 10-year-old girl was asked to go to the man’s residence to pick something up. She testified that, during this visit, the man asked her to stay for a while and subsequently assaulted her.

The girl said the man pulled her pants down and performed oral sex on her and then forced her to do the same to him before she left.

The man denied having sexually abused the girl in any way. Gorman, in his written decision on the case, said he did not believe the man’s evidence that he had no contact with the girl after he and his partner separated.

The judge felt the man’s evidence was an attempt to establish a lack of opportunity to have abused her sexually.

“I found it to be unreasonable, nonsensical and purposely false,” Gorman said of the man’s evidence during the trial.